Safety For Whom? Understanding Black Youth Experiences With School-Based Law Enforcement

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Abolition, Agency, and Action: Dismantling Racism and Carceral Logics for Educational Justice (Table 1)

Abstract

Using narrative inquiry guided by theories of anti-blackness for analysis, I discuss the recalled experiences of Black youth (age 18-25) and their experiences with systems of law enforcement while they were in high school. Theoretically framed through an afropessimist interpretation of social death furthered through Blackcrit, my analysis revealed how: 1.) my participants’ maneuvering through the school to avoid SBLE is indicative of student safety as an impossibility for Black students, 2.) student safety measures are rooted in anti-blackness, and 3.) how Blackness is constructed as unsafe to the school environment. From these findings, it is evident that the school must be critically interrogated as an active participant in Black suffering.

Author

• Chetachukwu Uchenna Agwoeme, University of Pittsburgh